Fat- burning fats
Can fat contribute to weight loss?
Kirill Stasevich, CompulentaYes!
The accumulation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in muscles, and especially linoleic acid, increases the number of mitochondria in cells and stimulates thermoregulation genes, thereby increasing the consumption of stored calories.
We used to think that any fat makes us fat. However, experiments conducted by a group of scientists from Texas Tech University (USA) have shown that there is a kind of fat that stimulates metabolism and, conversely, helps to reduce fat accumulation. This variety turned out to be the well-known polyunsaturated fatty acids. Another key player here is the enzyme SCD1 (Stearoyl-CoA desaturase), which is synthesized in the liver and which can be found in abundance in the muscles of obese people.
Chad Paton and his colleagues tried to find out what this enzyme does in muscles. Scientists have modified mice so that SCD1 is synthesized in their muscles all the time. It turned out that these mice have a greatly increased metabolism, they burn more energy and are capable of longer physical exertion.
SCD1, as researchers write in the Journal of Lipid Research (Rogowski et al., SCD1 activity in muscle increases triglyceride PUFA content, exercise capacity, and PPARδ expression in mice), converts saturated fats into monounsaturated fats by modifying the fatty acids included in them. Adipose tissue synthesizes it all the time, with its help it manages the fat reserves in itself. The liver produces or does not produce SCD1 depending on which fats the individual has eaten with food. In the muscles, SCD1 begins to accumulate only with obesity or with very intense physical training.
However, training and SCD1 are interrelated, and mice in which this protein was synthesized all the time showed champion performance: they turned the squirrel wheel for 70 minutes instead of 10, like ordinary rodents. At the same time, polyunsaturated fatty acids accumulated in the muscles of the mice, especially linoleic acid, which the animals could only get from food. However, by eating noticeably more than ordinary mice, the modified rodents, on the contrary, lost weight.
It turned out that linoleic acid included genes responsible for the appearance of mitochondria in the cell, as well as genes controlling increased heat generation. Due to an increase in the number of mitochondria and heat generation, the mice apparently lost weight.
By converting saturated fats into monounsaturated fats, the enzyme thereby promoted their cleavage and increased the physical endurance of mice. However, increased physical activity forced the rodents to eat more, and along with food, a lot of linoleic acid entered their body, which caused further changes in metabolism, contributing to the utilization of accumulated calories.
Obviously, the appearance of SCD1 in the muscles of overweight people is a protective mechanism designed to balance the accumulation of fat.
Linoleic acid belongs to the essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are also known as Omega-3 and Omega-6. Their role in metabolism is extremely important, although it is still not entirely clear; apparently, their various useful properties will now be supplemented by the ability to almost directly affect energy metabolism like this.
It is impossible to modify the human gene in the same way as it was done with the mouse, but it is possible to change the diet so that more polyunsaturated fat-burning fats enter the body (no matter how oxymoron it may sound).
Prepared based on the materials of the Texas Tech University:
Researcher: Certain Fat Could Help Humans Lose Weight.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.10.2013